A feeder of this type is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1. This well-known feeder feeds shredded tobacco material toward a tobacco band of a cigarette manufacturing apparatus. Then, the shredded tobacco material is subjected to first and second winnowing processes. The object of the winnowing processes is to separate the shredded tobacco material into large particles having large sizes and normal particles having sizes that are smaller than the large particles and fall within a desired range, and then to remove the large particles from the shredded tobacco material. Accordingly, the tobacco band is fed with the normal particles contained in the shredded tobacco material.
The large particles have more weight than the normal particles, and contain stems and midribs, which are produced due to the defective shredding of tobacco material, and also include a portion of butterfly wing-shaped tobacco leaves, etc.
Patent Document 1: International Publication No. WO2002/076245